I've had caelum, its PB is horrendous and will not hit anything 90% of the time. I once saw its homing lazers fly over a caterdran and hit some boxes in the distance.

I changed that Caelum into a Tucana and can't be happier. Tucana's PB will cause 7 shots to rain down from above onto enemies at random. If there is only one target, like a single rockbear, all lazers will fall onto it. Damage is into the 1500's for each hit if you have a strike based weapon equipped (ajax-imera runs off of strike stats to deal damage, I have a +10 edge blazer for this). On rare occasions the PB will derp completely and hit random spots of the map, not sure what causes that.

working on my second characters ranger mag and i'm not sure which PB blast i should be aiming for. my main's has ajax-proi which i do not want on this mag.

the possible options are:

Tucana -Ajax-imera
Caelum - Ajax-nifta
Corvus - Julius-imera

havent really seen or used any of these in combat, so i would like to get some input on there overall worth.

Well there is one clear answer. Out of the 3 you've mentioned only one of them scale with R-Atk and that is Corvus - julies imera. It's also a very lethal pb, the one on my ranger has devasted so many weakpoints especially targets like ragne and panthers.

working on my second characters ranger mag and i'm not sure which PB blast i should be aiming for. my main's has ajax-proi which i do not want on this mag.

the possible options are:

Tucana -Ajax-imera
Caelum - Ajax-nifta
Corvus - Julius-imera

havent really seen or used any of these in combat, so i would like to get some input on there overall worth.

Not really sure.

Some people swear by Ajax-Imera. I've heard reports that its damage total can be enormous. It definitely looks awesome. Reports on Ajax-Nifta are mixed. Some people hate it, but I've seen some people who love it. Ajax-Nifta fires a bunch of homing bolts in a very wide cone. I haven't used it, but from what I've gathered, it's kinda useless unless you've only got one enemy (a boss or something) within range. Otherwise it spreads its damage out too much. Julius Imera definitely has the huge advantage (for a ranger) of scaling with R-atk. But the scaling problem is not intractable. What some people do is keep a weapon with high S-atk (since most PB's scale with S-atk) on switch. Basically, they switch to their melee weapon, fire off the PB, then switch back and go on with their business. This reportedly considerably increases PB damage for rangers and forces.

Beyond PB's, also consider their basic attacks. Tucana uses melee and can knock the target down. You may or may not like the knockdown. Some people find it very annoying, as it can knock targets out of PA chains. Some people like the crowd control it offers. Caelum uses Megid. As was mentioned before, Poison is nice, though I don't know if this poison is high enough to touch bosses with anything but the rarest chance. Corvus fires explosive thunder bullets which have AoE.

There's also the support abilities to think about. Tucana has Buff B (Area Change). Caelum is PP Recovery B (Area Change). And Corvus is PP Recovery E (PB Full). You can avoid these and get a different one if you evolve into a different mag first for your second evolution, but that may or may not be easily possible depending on how you build your stats.

Honestly, I don't think there's a clear best choice here. You need to weigh the factors and decide. I've got pictures of the mags and links to videos of each PB in my guide, if that helps, as well as more detailed mag info.

looks like it's down to corvus and tucana. i actually ran into a ranger using julius-imera last night during an e-mission. the numbers were huge, but it seemed like the AoA was rather small. seems like a great one for bosses or smaller, but more difficult mobs. watched the video on ajax-imera and it looks like it has a nice damage radius. only problem is remembering to switch weapons before blasting.

guess i shall do some more research before i make a final decision as i still have some time yet before it evolves a second time.

if only julius-nifta were obtainable on any mag, i'd probably have that on all of them. that vaccum ball is so great holding panthers and other boss in place during weak bullet strikes...

What stats are most important for Rangers? I was leaning towards the ability branch but after reading this thread I might have to change my choice. New at playing ranger but for the most part its pretty straightforward. Is striking or ranged more important for a ranger when it comes to the mag I guess? Sorry to go off topic serenade

Last edited by WiZ1988; Sep 9, 2012 at 11:36 AM.

PSO2- Wiz had to be retired, current character is jonesy, female Dewman, jonesy male newman, jonesy male cast- Ship 2